


Triptych in Infidelity

by take_liberties



Category: The Good Wife
Genre: F/F, Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:36:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/take_liberties/pseuds/take_liberties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened, what could have happened, and what didn't happen. Three alternate timelines set during the end of Season 2 and the Kalinda-slept-with-Peter arc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Triptych in Infidelity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wonderwanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderwanda/gifts).



**How It Happened**  
Kalinda and Peter are equally matched. It is a mutual seduction. Each performs their duty with a nearly professional air, and when they finish, each disengages from the act shamelessly. Neither wonders at the other's secretive post-coital phone-checking, low murmured calls on the opposite sides of a closed door. Peter is less endowed with discretion and prudence than Kalinda is, but she isn’t worried. Peter’s other indiscretions would outshadow this single act by a mile, and she never, ever worries about repercussions.

She learns to regret the day Alicia sits at her desk, avoiding Kalinda’s gaze, barely able to gasp out the accusation. This was not an eventuality she had ever anticipated. Kalinda barely makes it into the elevator before she breaks down. It wasn’t that she had ever vowed not to cry at work, it was that it had never occurred to her that she would need to make such a vow. Still, wiping her eyes and trying to hide the evidence before the elevator hits the ground floor feels like its own loss.

Their friendship snaps - breaks cleanly in two in an instant - and the recovery process is long, slow, painful. There are months during which she thinks they will never be able to regain what was destroyed, but slowly they mend.

By the day, years later, when they both lose Will, their relationship has healed as fully as it ever will. They are close again, enough to console and grieve together, but a different phantom looms over every interaction. They have healed, but there are scars.

 **How It Didn’t Happen**  
Kalinda stops Andrew Wiley on his way into the State’s Attorney’s office. He’s an easy target. A surprisingly capable investigator, but a multitude of vulnerabilities make him easy work for Kalinda: intercepting him, laying down a few expertly veiled threats, supplying an alternate theory, ensuring Alicia’s ignorant bliss.

He hurries in to Lockhart Gardner, insists on getting to Alicia to tell her the newly concocted story. He wants to get it over with as quickly as possible. Her face turns to stone and she leaves the office for the rest of the day. Angry, but not with Kalinda.

But it festers there, beneath the surface. Kalinda is used to carrying with her a deep well of secrets, but this one brings something new. Every interaction with Alicia is loaded, looking her in the eyes feels like standing on a precipice.

She knows. She knows, and she can’t face Alicia anymore.

“I’m turning in my notice, Will. This is my two weeks.”

“I’m not getting into a bidding war.”

Some things don’t change.

*  
Some things do.

“You’re gonna be going back to the State’s Attorney’s office. We closed a deal to handle their investigative work. I want you to be my top dog over there.” Sophia tells her, the day she closes on the new job.

“With Wendy Scott Carr?” Kalinda asks.

“Yes, she’s the new State’s Attorney. She’s changing up the whole staff.”

“Great.” Kalinda responds. “I voted for her.”

Sophia lets out a little laugh. “As if you would have voted for Florrick.”

 **How It Could Have Happened**  
Blake accuses her of sleeping with Peter and it’s one of the rare moments, the absurd, fleeting moments in which Kalinda lets her composure break. She’s standing with a vice grip on her baseball bat when the laugh bubbles up from deep, deep down, builds its way into her chest and she just lets it come, her shoulders shaking with it. Blake stands there, looking quizzically down at her, his composure’s fallen away too, but the effect is more somber. Kalinda catches sight of him and gasps for a composing breath.

“You sure got me, Blake.” She almost giggles it, and lifts her hands in a defensive gesture, the bat now dangling loosely from her hand. “Go ahead and take that to the State’s Attorney’s office. Tell Matan about it. Show them your proof. You have proof...right?” Instead of waiting for an answer, she turns her shoulder and walks out of the garage, dragging the bat on the ground all the way to the door of her car.

Peter had come on to her, of course, after the name change and after her troubles had come to a head, but she’d rebuffed him. Sent him back to the call girl, who’d satisfy his needs, and wasn’t that really all he was after?

“You’re not exactly my type, but thanks.” She’d shrugged away from him, shot him a meaningful, warning glance when she laid her hand on the doorknob to leave. He’d shrugged a shoulder, given her a weak smile, and that had been the end of it. Peter had slept with a few of the women in the office by that point, but Kalinda would never be interested in adding her name to that list.

The day of Peter’s re-election Andrew Wiley steals into the campaign victory party to give Alicia some bad news. He believes that it’s always important to know the truth no matter how much it may hurt, and the truth is that Blake had uncovered a series of affairs Peter had carried out with several of his coworkers in the office to which he has just been re-elected. Alicia calls her realtor.

Boxes packed, keys and accusations delivered, and Alicia goes home, spends some time primping in the mirror, and calls the only person she can think of who can help her drown this sorrow.

Kalinda lines up the tequila shots, like she’s done countless times for Alicia before, but circumstances demand a few more this time. More for Alicia, and more for her, until they’re dizzily hanging on to the bar, giggling.

“Listen.” Kalinda sways, but her diction is still clear. “Divorcing my loser husband was one of the best decisions I ever-”

“You were married?” Alicia interrupts her.

“Yes, but listen. Listen. That’s not important, what’s important is divor-”

“To a man?” Alicia sounds surprised, but there’s another note in her question too.

“Alicia, I told you. I’m private.” Kalinda has locked eyes with her and they’re both looking, unwavering. When--

“Mrs. State’s Attorney, congratulations!” Some slimy politico has approached Alicia with a hand outstretched, almost an offered handshake, but for the business card slipped between two fingers.

“Than- um, thank you.” Alicia’s flustered and breaks her gaze with Kalinda just long enough to look at the guy, down at his hand, back up to his face, and say, “Sorry, we were just - “ She looks back at Kalinda. “Leaving?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Kalinda replies, bringing a hand to Alicia’s elbow to steer her out of the bar and into a cab.

In the cab, they gravitate immediately towards each other. The kiss tastes like too much tequila and salt and it’s far from perfect, but it feels so good. Kalinda rests her hand on Alicia’s knee, and Alicia lets out a soft ‘oh’ when she begins to slide it up her thigh. Kalinda pulls back with a querying look, but Alicia only responds by pulling her back into the kiss.

The cab pulls up to Kalinda’s place, and Kalinda presses a few bills, a few too many, maybe, into the driver’s hand before sliding out of the back seat leading Alicia by the hand.

They barely make it inside before Kalinda has Alicia up against the wall, mouth at the hollow of Alicia’s throat, and hands pulling at her skirt, sliding it up, up until the hem reveals lace on skin.

Kalinda palms at her before slipping her hand down along Alicia's skin, testing, teasing. She feels her, slick and warm, and presses two fingers inside. Alicia gasps, her breathing irregular, and Kalinda breaks her attention from the collarbone she’s been pressing kisses into to look up at Alicia’s face. They hold each others’ gaze and Kalinda works her fingers into Alicia, establishing a steady rhythm, thumb circling Alicia’s clit.

Alicia has this look of pleasure and wonder in her eyes until she can’t look at Kalinda anymore, closes them, leans her head back into the wall and -

Kalinda feels Alicia clenching around her fingers in a slippery pulse. Alicia’s breathing slows, and she looks back down to meet Kalinda’s gaze, which hasn’t left her face this whole time. Without breaking their eye contact, Kalinda slides her hand out, brings her fingers back up to her mouth and sucks them clean, smile playing on her lips.

“Kalinda, I- I haven’t…” Alicia falters on the right words.

“Don’t worry, I can show you.” Kalinda answers, pulling her into the bedroom.

Kalinda wakes up the next morning to the sound of a running shower and the sight of Alicia’s ring lying on her nightstand.

**Author's Note:**

> A couple lines of dialogue cribbed directly from analogous scenes in the show. 
> 
> Thanks to my marvelous betas. Shout out to Archie Panjabi and Juliana Margulies's massive acting chops during this arc.


End file.
